


Swap Moon Encounters

by wynnebat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-21 10:10:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14282658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: Weary of his life of crime and eager to not get shanked by the Galra Empire, Rolo gets a job at the space mall's frozen crystal stand.





	Swap Moon Encounters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TereziMakara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TereziMakara/gifts).



“Here’s your jumbo frozen crystal, ma’am,” Rolo says with a practiced smile, friendly and non-threatening.

His customer flutters her tentacles at him in thanks, the tips darkening to a pretty green color as she blushes. Thankfully, she’s the last customer in line, which means Rolo can sit back and relax for a while. Or rather, Rook Ine can sit back and relax. Rook is a flirty, slightly airheaded young man who who cares more about building his muscles than building a career. His boss doesn’t even suspect him of skimming from the register, which Rolo has to remind himself not to do every day.

It’s hard to give up a life of crime, even temporarily, but after the debacle with Voltron and the Galra, Rolo had needed a break. Here, he can eat frozen crystals until his brains leak out of his ears, and dial Nyma and Beezer on breaks. Nyma had laughed herself silly when he’d told her that if they could really get away from the Galra, he’d go straight. She’s already rounded up their mutual bets to place bets on how long his life as a good citizen will last, which, rude. He’s planning to last at least a quintent after her bet. Then… well, for the first time in his life, he’s tried out honest employment. It’s not for him. Back to thievery it’s going to be, hopefully with less run-ins with the Galra.

Before he can linger on the thought too long, the swap moon’s alarm system rings out through the entire structure, lights blinking red and systems blaring. It’s the most interesting thing that’s happened in the entire time he’s been here.

“Halt!” yells out a group of robotic Galra sentries as they run around the main floor.

From his spot inside the frozen crystal stand, tucked away in a corner, Rolo has a clear view of the entertainment. A man is running away from the sentries, ducking behind shoppers and making his way in the direction of Rolo’s stand. It’s better than any Unilu drama he’s watched lately, right up until the intruder manages to distract the sentries and runs straight toward Rolo’s out-of-the-way little booth.

“Oh no you don’t,” Rolo mutters, shooting him a stink-eye.

The intruder responds by jumping over the counter of his booth. He moves smoothly right up until his landing, when he slips on a frozen crystal Rolo had been too lazy to pick up and bangs his head against the floor. As the sentries run past the booth, Rolo pokes the intruder with his foot.

“You dead?” That’s the last thing he needs, a dead body in Rook Ine’s perfectly boring life. There’s no honor among space pirates when those space pirates are trying to keep their heads down. He kicks the intruder lightly. “Hey, I’m talking to you.”

“M’not,” groans the intruder. “Stop that.”

“If you’re alive, you can scram,” Rolo tells him. “I have a business to run.”

The intruder sits up and rubs his head. “Ow. That move seemed a lot cooler in my head. Are the sentries gone?”

“Yes,” Rolo tells him without actually looking. When he does see the Galra milling about nearby, he considers simply continuing the lie or just selling the man out to the Galra. But he’s not looking to do favors for a people who’ve tried to kill him on multiple occasions, so that’s out. “All but a few, anyway.”

The intruder checks for himself and seems to count the sentries before glancing back at Rolo. “Thanks for not ratting me out. Can I wait here until they leave to search another part of the mall?”

Rolo taps his fingers against his wristband, not hitting any of the buttons. Both weapons and communication devices are banned here, but what the Galra don’t know won’t hurt them. Rook Ine would call over a sentry and let the Galra deal with the intruder. The old Rolo would discreetly check if the intruder had a bounty on his head and take him in to someone higher up. Post-getting his ass handed to him by Voltron and nearly starving before another ship came by to rescue him, Nyma, and Bezeer, that Rolo says, “Sure, as long as you stay out of sight.” Rolo studies the intruder for a moment. “Your face looks familiar.” He’s a human, of that Rolo is more or less sure. The galaxy seems to be becoming infested with them. First those Voltron people, now this man.

The intruder shoots him a careful look. “I have one of those faces.”

Not with that weirdly soft skin and that hair color, Rolo thinks. The scar on the intruder’s face doesn’t help, either. Rolo knows faces; he has to, in his former line of work, and he knows the Galra’s wanted person database like the inside of his ship, for all that the database has thousands of entries. He doesn’t know the intruder’s name, but he can read everything else by the strained look in his eyes.

“You’re a rebel,” Rolo tells him. “Not many ways a human like you could’ve gotten all the way out here, so I assume it wasn’t done willingly. You were imprisoned until either someone fucked up or until you got out on your own, and now you want to take down the Galra Empire. It’s the age-old story. How did I do?”

“Better than a guy selling ice-cream should have,” the intruder replies, tracing the line of his scar in what looks like an unconscious gesture.

Maybe it’s this job making him remember long-forgotten manners or the empathy that got left for dead years ago, but Rolo reaches over and picks up a frozen crystal with a cone. He hands it to the intruder with the words, “I’m just perceptive.”

“I don’t think I can digest this,” the intruder says, poking at it with a finger. Instead, he places it against the side of his head that had banged against the floor, sighing in relief. Rolo finds he likes that look on the intruder more than suspicion. When the intruder’s attention reaches Rolo again, he says, “I’m Matt and you’re right. I was a prisoner of the Galra before I was rescued by the rebellion, and now I’m going to make sure that one day no one else will have to go through the same.” He tilts his head, a wry smile on his lips. “I hope that as a perfectly average citizen on a Galra-monitored swap moon, you aren’t scared off by me being a part of the rebellion.”

Rolo huffs a laugh, shaking his head slightly. “What’s someone as subtle as you doing here, anyway?”

“I needed a rexl chip,” Matt replies, not giving any more details. Smart, but there’s not many systems that still use those chips. Rollo’s betting Matt’s off to the Iskeen bloc. Out there on the fringes, they’ve never been all too fond of the Galra. Leaning in, Matt asks, “So what’s your story?”

“Asking for my story before asking my name?”

“Would you tell me your real one?” Matt asks.

“Real is subjective,” Rolo tells him. He went by one name as a boy, then was given another when he became a man. He still had that name when the Galra came for his planet, but when he escaped, he picked up the one he’s gone by for years. He had a family name once as well, but there’s no use for family names when his planet doesn’t exist anymore, let alone other members of his family. And as for his story… Rook Ine’s family is alive and well, living on a grassy planet warmed by two suns. But Rolo doesn’t think Matt would look at Rook the same way he’s looking at Rolo, with quietly-building empathy. “Something similar, but I didn’t decide to nobly martyr myself for the rebellion’s cause once I got out.”

“Fight or flight,” Matt says, his words quiet but without scorn. “I didn’t trust them much either when they first got me away from the Galra, but I needed their help to search for my father. I haven’t found him yet, but even when I do, I’m going to stay. I think we have a real chance of stopping the Galra with Voltron’s help. They’ve had the kind of success that the rebellion never managed on their own.”

Matt continues talking about their recent victories, his words sure and strong. Rolo finds himself strangely interested, though he can’t imagine the thought of being a force of good in the galaxy. There’s something attractive about the way Matt talks, all determination and fire despite his scars. Rolo had been that way once, growing up on a planet that had been too insignificant for the Galra to bother taking. He’d come of age with a rebellion base in his city and had entertained all sorts of dreams of being a hero. One year later, that base was gone and the planet with it. Rolo’s dreams came to a sudden end.

“You could join us, you know,” Matt offers. There’s no deception to his offer as far as Rolo can hear, which nearly makes it worse. “My team could use another member. If you help me find the chip, we can be off the planet within a few hours.”

Rolo could find that chip in minutes. He already has a middle range illegal weapons dealer and an experienced thief among his colleagues at the mall, so something as minor as that will me easy. Easy enough for him to give Matt some directions and watch him leave. Rolo would finish his shift, return to his boring little home, hear about Nyma’s current con, maybe watch another Unilu drama. Going straight has been boring as hell so far. He’s been itching to go back to a life of crime, and is conning the Galra all that different from conning everyone else?

(Yes, it is, but madness doesn’t listen to reason.)

“The coalition better come with benefits,” Rolo says, standing up and flicking the closed display on.

Matt does the same, grinning and taking Rolo’s hand to pick himself up from the floor. “Absolutely none.”

Of course there aren’t, Rolo thinks, sighing. But he’s always been good at turning things his way. Matt’s hand is warm inside his and he hasn’t pulled away. If he’s making the biggest mistake of his life, he may as well do it in style. “What about rules against dating your teammates?”

“None of those, either,” Matt tells him, grin widening. “C’mon. We have plans to make.”

Rolo doesn’t bother looking back at the frozen crystal stand as he leaves. Good riddance to the normal life, honestly.

**Author's Note:**

> (Nyma ends up winning that bet, so Rolo pulls her and Beezer into the coalition as revenge.)
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I'm also on tumblr as @[crownwithoutstones](https://crownwithoutstones.tumblr.com/).


End file.
